Two weeks ago, Arcata’s playoff hopes were hanging by a thread.
Now the Tigers are in pole position to secure a No. 2 seed for the H-DNL postseason Dick Niclai tournament and are officially eligible for the North Coast Section playoffs.
On Wednesday night, Arcata traveled to Fortuna and came away with a comfortable 64-36 win, improving to 4-2 in the Big 5 and 10-13 overall.
It’s been a good turnaround for a team that dropped eight of nine games from mid-December to early January and seemed destined to miss out on the postseason.
Senior guard Luke Lemke has played a huge role in that turnaround, and he seems to relish matching up against the Huskies.
The frontrunner for this year’s Big 5 MVP award followed his 51-point performance against Fortuna three weeks ago with another dominating night against them on Wednesday, scoring a game-high 35 points.
“Luke just did Luke things,” Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said of Lemke, who started fast and scored 20 of his team’s 22 points in the opening quarter. “You kind of sometimes have to sit back in awe and be impressed by the athlete. I actually thought he played better tonight than he did when we played Fortuna at home. He was just more in control.”
Lemke had five 3-pointers in the win.
“We let Lemke get going, and that is disastrous,” Fortuna head coach Norm Sotomayor said.
After an 0-4 start to the game, the Tigers quickly took control and never looked back.
“Once we settled in, I was happy with our effort tonight,” Maynard said. “I was happy with our response. We played well.”
Isaac Ingram and Noah Hodgson each added five points in the win, while Heron Cromwell and Remey Winkler both chipped in four points.
Jack Stacy led Fortuna with seven points, as the Huskies dropped to 0-5 in conference play and 7-16 overall.
Next up, on Friday night the Huskies will travel to McKinleyville, while the Tigers have a bye in conference before hosting St. Bernard’s on Saturday night at 6 p.m.
